Vegas trip report-November 2008

The wife and I just got back from Vegas. Just a warning in advance, this report may get long and drawn out. I've only finished day 1 and it's already 2 pages.

Day 1:Arrival

We were on the first United flight out of Cedar Rapids, which led us to believe we should be departing on time. Unfortunately, someone forgot to start warming up the plane on time. We were scheduled to have a 40-minute layover in Denver, now I was envisioning the wife and I sprinting through the airport to catch our connector. Actually, I envisioned myself sprinting while my wife would be power walking while screaming “Stop the plane!” We went up to the counter in Cedar Rapids to see where our gate would be in Denver. We were landing at gate 91, and we were hoping to be as lucky as the guys in front of us who had to go all of 20 feet to gate 93. We, on the other hand, had to get to gate 38.

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The plane left about 20 minutes late, but we made up time in the air through the use of a shortcut? (how are there shortcuts in the air? And why not use them all the time?) and arrived about 5-10 minutes late. The wife and I power-walked it to our flight to Vegas and made it with time to spare.

We made it to Vegas at about 9:30, so the airport was dead. I’ve always flown to Vegas in the afternoon/evening, so I had never experienced the joy of McCarren when it’s empty. We didn’t have to climb over people to get luggage and there was no line for taxis. Our cab driver was a kindred soul as it quickly became apparent he was a degenerate gambler. He regaled us of 5-figure slot wins and bad beat jackpots. Like a true degenerate gambler, he never mentioned losses. I guessing he had many as he was easily in his mid-60s and still driving a cab. I tipped him well when we arrived at the Flamingo and we went in with a slim hope of a room being available at 10:30.

The only rooms were smoking or queen, so we set off to find some food. I wanted to try Margaritaville as I’ve heard good reviews about their nachos. It was still early, but I was hoping we’d beat the lunch rush and get seated. The hostess said there was a 20 minute wait, or we could sit at the bar. The wife and I were both starving, and the bar was empty so we walked over and sat down. There was no bartender at the time, but we figured one would be around shortly. We sat there for 10 minutes, still no bartender. I looked over at the hostess a couple times (she was no more than 20 feet away), thinking maybe she could assist instead of busily doing nothing. Finally I walked over to her and asked if someone would be around to take our order. She informed me that we were at the wrong bar, and we needed to go upstairs to get served. I relayed this message to my wife, then had to tranquilize her as she was ready to strangle the hostess. Instead, we walked upstairs to find absolutely no seating available. We walked out, with me strategically placing myself between the hostess and my wife to avoid any bloodshed.

At this point we were starving and would have settled for anything short of the hot dogs at Slots-O-Fun. We walked across the street to O’Sheas and went to Burger King. I don’t have any proof, but I think the reason I have a low-level addiction to their double stacker is because they sprinkle just a pinch of crack cocaine on each sandwich.

We continued north on the strip and decided to kill some time at the Grand Canal Shoppes as our room wouldn’t be ready for at least another hour. We almost turned around at the entrance due to the overpowering smell of vanilla. Seriously, does anyone like vanilla enough to want to walk through the doors? We held our breath and got past the worst of the stench.

After killing an hour in the Grand Canal Shoppes, we went back to the Flamingo and found our room to be ready. Here’s another benefit of arriving early-we didn’t have to wait in a huge line to get check in. We got our keys, picked up our bags and went up to the room. We were on the 14^th floor (I’m not terribly superstitious, but I did notice there wasn’t a 13^th floor so essentially the 14^th floor is the 13^th floor) and it was a bit difficult finding the room as our room number had been torn off the wall. The room was decent sized but largely unremarkable. The bathtub stopper was broken and the room showed some age, but we got the king bed we requested so I was happy.

As the wife settled in, went downstairs to scope out the betting lines and buy an anniversary card (it was our 10^th). Yeah, I know I should have bought a card earlier but I had bought a ring and written a potentially meaningful note, so the card wasn’t all that important. The wife was pleasantly surprised, which is a fairly rare feat for me to accomplish.

The wife laid down for a nap while I decided to go on a hike. I’d heard the Hilton has the best sportsbook around, so I decided to find out for myself. Most logical people would have taken the monorail from Harrah’s to the Hilton, but I decided to walk it. The weather was perfect so I was comfortable walking it, but I wouldn’t do it if the temps were above 80. The rumors I heard about the sportsbook were correct. It’s huge and has great odds. For instance, at the Hilton the pay on a 4-team parlay is 13 for 1. At MGM, it’s 11 for 1 and Harrah’s is 12 for 1. I placed a few bets, played some video poker (and lost) and headed back to the Flamingo.

We headed to Fashion Show Mall, which wasn’t terribly busy even though it was Black Friday. We had dinner at California Pizza Kitchen and decided to have a few drinks on the way back to the hotel. The first stop was Kahunaville, since we got a 2-for-1 drink coupon on the way into TI. I’m usually not a big coupon guy, but considering the drink prices in Vegas I was all for it. The bartender at Kahunaville was very entertaining, although I noticed there is a wide range of bartending ability there. Our bartender was flipping bottles all over the place. The next bartender down the line did a trick I think I could do with 15 minutes of practice. His trick consisted of pouring alcohol from about 2 feet above the glass.

Kahunaville was dead (it was still pretty early) so we had our drinks and headed to the Piano Bar at Harrah’s. We had 2-for-1 coupons again so we drank relatively cheap. When we arrived they were doing karaoke. I must say, the karaoke there was significantly better than any I’d heard before. People that can sing that good where I come from get hired as wedding singers. There was an occasional dud (some woman screeching out “Dixie” comes to mind), but overall it was great. The dueling pianos started not long we arrived and they were good, although I think I was equally entertained by the karaoke. We listened to the dueling pianos for about an hour and were feeling drunk enough that we decided to head for the hotel.